Psamanthe

Whole area dedicated just for this: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/forum/43-archetypes/

My friends stopped playing for a very different reason that isn't present in the above list: "I left before the shutdown. And newer games have made the pain points of City of Heroes stick out more than they did back then." "After (insert player) passed away, I can't come back. It hurts too much playing it without them." "I miss Paragon Studios and that time the game existed in. If they aren't coming back, neither should I." And my roommate: "I enjoyed it in my 20s. Now that I am in my 40s I have no time to play City of Heroes... I'm too busy for any video games." I think more people are facing those reasons rather than being displeased with decisions that Homecoming made in the last 6 years. Something no effort on HC Staff or on our part can fix. Perhaps they just moved on. And not all of the inactive accounts in Homecoming's logs are disgruntled exits for "bad decisions".

In any case, someone smarter than me pointed out the existence of these two characters: Message Man (Resistance) Clockwork A87952 (Loyalist) Both contacts auto-assign to a Praetorian of the same alignment as of Level 5. They'll be in the contact list (but not where Radio or Newspaper would be in Primal Earth.) The contacts are repeatable. If things truly are borked, they can grant missions that do a little better than Street-Sweeping until the magic Level 20 appears and you can punch your toon's ticket out to Primal Earth. It's not great story wise, but it beats deletion.

There's a warning already on the Wiki concerning this very thing. https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Crusader_Storyline Yeah, this is why it is not recommended for players starting off with City of Heroes to play Praetorian characters until they 'cut their teeth' on Primal Earth characters first. Praetoria is still a bit glitchy on mission progress at times. You might know this, but for anyone who doesn't: it is also possible to do any of the four Praetorian arcs with a Primal Earth character through Flashback (Ouroboros) instead, so if a contact is gone, you can start the next arc manually. Get to Level 10, then you can run those arcs at your level, or get to Level 25 and do any/all of them as you wish. EDIT: In hindsight the above paragraph isn't good advice, as none of the Praetorian arcs before First/Night Ward have "time travel" features. It's not possible to get access to Ouroboros solo in Praetoria without another player intervening (portal drop).

That is an excellent point, I'll add to that. The con system is a good topic to go over on Homecoming Wiki. https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Con_System As much as possible, grey, green and blue mobs is a sign to move on from an area. The XP will be reduced, and it will take a long time to add to your bubbles. There's a dark grey that is -4 or less combat level to your character. When dark grey mobs are defeated you won't gain any XP or inf, no matter how many you defeat. Also, an area with nothing but red and purple enemies (fuchsia really) is a sign you might be dancing with danger a little too much. XP is amazing but unless you're with a team the debt isn't worth it. Giant Monsters always con purple and can land in any zone (Winter, it's practically guaranteed.) Never solo a Giant Monster unless you're Level 50 and you made a build that focuses on defense and have a lot of resources to manage it (Inspirations, Temp Powers, and Incarnate powers.) Or, again, you're with a team or league ready to whittle it down bit by bit. (Always join a team or league if one forms to fight a giant monster! The XP and merit/aether reward isn't assured if you're not on the team and taking pot shots at it hoping to damage it enough to matter.) The sweet spot when leveling is white, yellow, and orange, with some reds on occasion. If that's too much to remember at first, warm colors (yellows, reds and oranges) have XP, cooler colors (greens, blues, grey) have less. Purple is bad to solo. Well, maybe an occasional purple if you have lots of inspirations and you got a small team with you. Or a hospital close by. It takes a while to get used to. But the more missions you do the easier it is to 'feel an area out' in a way.

You do get a choice in wood finish? Sorry, hon. That's all they offer.

I respectfully disagree. Ignoring teaming for a second, Vigilantes are able to complete Hero content and only visit Villain zones, where Rogues are able to complete Villain content and only visit Hero zones. The popup is a reminder when side switching that after seeing it, if none of the contacts will interact with you, your alignment is on the wrong side of the zone's content. I don't find it totally useless.